NY Times article, Jason Hairston

Thank you for posting. Tough read. Having not met or known him personally, my comment is one of sadness for his family. My family sends our thoughts and prayers as we are all in this game together.


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Prayers for the family. He owed no one besides his family a thing. And, as driven as he was, the pics of his family times, and his reactions described in that article, its safe to say that he wasn't the man he used to be. Time was working against him. It's just a sad thing to hear of any man's legacy ending like this.
 
I know I've said it on here before but until you have lived every waking hour of many, many days with just about every thought telling you to stick the muzzle of a gun in your mouth and press the trigger and the only thing holding you back is not wanting your wife to have to deal with that can you possibly understand what it is like for things to be horrible enough to push you past that point.

And if you don't understand that then your opinion on the matter is, quite frankly, irrelevant.
 
Thanks for sharing that article. What a struggle. It's nice to know they're close to a living diagnosis; I hope there's a treatment on the horizon, as well.
 
That was a tough read. I played division one football and have had over ten major surgeries knees and shoulders. A person goes into the sport of football knowing that there is a good possibility that you could suffer a major injury but I never thought that a concussion was a big deal.

Many don’t understand that there are various degrees of concussions, the big ones where you don’t know what day it is or you have double vision and there are the lesser ones when you get hit and you see stars, spots and little floaty things. I have taken several big hits to the head and the coach’s and trainers would say “oh he just got his bell rung take a snort of ammonia and you are go to go”. I just turned 50 and I worry about C.T.E. I do not have thoughts of suicide or depression, however, I do find myself forgetting something I blame that on getting older. I was having dinner with some old football playing buddies and we where talking about the good old days and there where a few topics I just couldn’t recall it kind of made me nervous. Do I think I have the beginning of C.T.E no, just getting older. If there is a way to get tested for it then I will definitely get the test

Mental illness is a major issue in this country and I feel we as a society don’t take it seriously. I believe the more professional and college athletes come forward if they have mental health issues the more attention CTE and mental illness will get and at some point in time this illness will no longer be viewed as a weakness.

My prayers go out the the family and everyone who is suffering from the issue


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Suicide: The urge to live is strong. It's primal. So is the need to protect our families from death and suffering. Taking one's own life does seem selfish on the surface, but it doesn't realize the state of mental unhealth and even insanity which leads to the final act. It's literally an act of insanity to take your life. To do it with family present just reinforces that. A person in a normal state of mental health doesn't contemplate killing themselves for months or years, until they can no longer ignore the thoughts. Think of water deepening behind a dam which can't sustain the pressure. I've known a number of people who killed themselves. Their misery is ended, but the legacy of suicide is family shock, followed by long-term suffering and shame. The suicide risk for all surviving members goes up as well.

Brain injury (CTE) leading to mental health disease is explainable, and is treatable to an extent. Suicides are preventable. This didn't have to end the way it did for Jason and his fine family. It makes me feel sick to read the story and see his illness have such an unnecessary and tragic outcome. In a sense, it's like 2 trains on parallel tracks and headed for an inevitable collision. One train is Jason's strength, abilities, intelligence and drive to excel at everything he did. The other train is his growing mental disease and decent into thoughts of killing himself. The collision finally happened.

Sadness for all who suffered. Prayers for those left to grieve and carry on.
 
His wife's comments about expecting it,..thinking it would happen within 5 years, etc. That is hard to swallow. To be brutally honest it just shows how arrogant Jason was. I know that Jason has a very good friend working on head trauma issues caused in the NFL. I know there are many who would liked to have helped him, I know that every person who knew him would like to have done more. She knew this was coming but knew but it sounds like she also knew there was no way he would consider the needs of his family over his own physical ailment.

I also know I can never put myself in his position so it is easy to say from the keyboard. I think we all would like to think we would have handled it differently.
 
Horrible.
I thought the author did a good job on the article. I only mention it because even with something as tragic as this there is no shortage of people tag would use it against hunters
 
C.T.E. and prescription meds along with alcohol sound like a horrible combo. Of course he sounds like he was in no condition to make wise choices, but his doctors must be crazy!

Thankfully he provided well for his families future without him!
 
dtrkyman said:
C.T.E. and prescription meds along with alcohol sound like a horrible combo. Of course he sounds like he was in no condition to make wise choices, but his doctors must be crazy!

Thankfully he provided well for his families future without him!
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I've had multiple guys I was in the Marines with commit suicide under "care" of the VA. They throw pills at the problem and send you on your way. Sounds like a similar situation at work here with Jason.

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RIP.

Tough read, but honestly none of it was unexpected given what we already know.

The bigger issue is modern football and it's continuing brain-injury effects on men and boys across the country.
There will come a day when the game as we know it will be a memory, and imho, rightfully so. The human brain isn't meant to be abused is such a fashion, it's obvious that helmets can't provide protection from this scourge. Besides, it's the brain hitting the inside of the skull--especially when that's immediately repeated--that causes CTE.

There's immense money on the line, one has to wonder how long it will all go on, and how much is 'acceptable' human collateral damage.
 
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